Do Men And Women Perceive Pain Differently?

the Clinical Pain Advisor take:

Do men and women perceive pain differently? A new study suggested that they might.

Published in the journal of Nature Neuroscience, the report noted that there are different kinds of immune cells involved in chronic pain in males and females. The study took a look at male and female mice.

The study reported that certain medications will affect the microglia in men and actually cause pain reduction, but this isn't necessarily the case for women. These same pain relieving medications did not seem to have the same impact on females.

So what's going on? Researchers believe the sex difference was linked to the presence of testosterone in the males. Additional parts of the study revealed that instead of microglia, different immune cells were found in women. These findings include: B and T cells.

The study's researchers believe these data suggest that pain medications can be made differently for men and women to help them alleviate pain.